Planning for series 2
an update on what I've been doing and what's coming up later in 2026
First things first - apologies for the lack of updates so far this year. The run up to Christmas was a bit crazy and then we had the holidays and after that I needed to shift my focus to paid work. I’m currently teaching my Entrepreneurship module for UCL’s Publishing MA and also doing my Origin Myth piece of work with entrepreneurs and people in mid life who are looking to make a change and prioritise meaning rather than success. There’s a short video outline of the Origin Myth piece of work I do here if you are curious about how rewriting the story of your life can radically change your conscious experience of the world. If you are interested, there are lots of testimonials and a written outline on my website here. It draws on much of the wondrous philosophy I have encountered on the show.
Things are calming down a little now and I’m happy to say my mind is moving towards series two. I have already recorded two episodes with another one happening in a few weeks. And I got a yes from someone yesterday who I have admired for over twenty years. And of course it came about through a serendipitous connection. This time indirectly via Iain McGilchrist.
I’m also thrilled to say I’m rapidly approaching thirty-five thousand downloads for the show in total - increasing at a rate of around two hundred a day, which is thrilling and exciting. Most people are getting it from Apple with 40% of downloads coming from the US and 35% from the UK with Canada and Australia both around 5% apiece. The rest are split across so many different countries it makes my mind boggle. Of course this is down to my incredible guests rather than me, but it makes me feel confident that I’m on to something and should continue to share my quest for meaning in the series.
I also have a plan fermenting in my brain for my home town to solve the three big issues troubling me right now. 1 - our local economy, 2 - how we are going to teach our children the human, creative and entrepreneurial skills they will need in a future being increasingly directed by AI and 3 - how to combat the rise of the far right.
I’m aware of how hubristic this sounds, but I have an idea I think might help accomplish all three and will be doing a talk about that in Salisbury on March 27th. I will post details about that on here nearer the time. It is kind of ridiculous, but it seems to me that we all have to start doing something about the many and varied ways in which the world seems to be falling apart. And what better place to try something than your own community?
I’m also launching a new business. That’s in stealth mode so I can’t talk about that right now but it seeks to solve the biggest problem authors face today - online visibility. Increasingly books are losing out to other forms of entertainment and something has to be done to return authorship and books to the status they deserve.
One final thing, while I’ve been taking a break from recording, the show itself has continued in the capable hands of Mike Warwick, who has become a friend since we met up to talk about what he loves about the show and the direction he wanted to take it in. He made the point in our chat (which you can download on the Do Lectures Radio app) that Where To Next? is like a tree and we are each heading off towards the light on our own individual branches all the while still rooted in the same sensibility. We are hatching a plan to run a workshop based on the show. More on that in due course.
Oh and I almost forgot. There is one more wonderful chat with John Grigsby to share, which I will upload this weekend. We are also going to get together to record more conversations about our early ancestors at some point in the next few months too.
Phew. Lots happening.
Much love,
Dan